Greetings from the
International Space Exploration and Colonization Co.
(ISECCo). We are a non-profit research organization located
in Fairbanks, Alaska. We are dedicated to research and
development of space oriented technology. Suggestions to
improve this site would be very greatly appreciated; please
write.

We would appreciate your visiting our sponsors, who support our
efforts with generous donations of both cash and material.
Our top sponsor this month is Ray's Rentals.

Closed Ecological Life Support System Research

Space exploration and colonization utilizes a wide variety
of complex technologies. When ISECCo first formed in 1988,
we examined the many fields of work in search of a subject
which would encourage the eventual colonization of space,
yet fall within our meager resources. The agricultural
sciences for space was (and is!) poorly developed. So we
chose to build an advance life support (ALS) agricultural
system that will be needed for people to live in space. The
technical term is Controlled Ecological Life Support System
(CELSS, more commonly known as a Biosphere), which uses
bioregenerative techniques to support people. Our goal is
developing the technology needed to support people in space
and other remote environments, providing all the food, air
and water needed (more background).

We are building our CELSS project in a series of steps,
designed not only to develop the technology but to enhance
our skills in the basics of closed system agriculture. We
began with a paper on
our initial ideas. Our first experiments were with our garden,
which began as a simple garden spot. Our project expanded
with the addition of the garden greenhouse,
The Garden Circle,
a larger greenhouse,
the Basement
Biosphere and we are now working on Mars Base 0,
which is a complete ecosystem designed to provide most of
the food needed to support a person (see also diary).
Our
project will culminate in Nauvik,
which will be a mostly closed ecosystem.

General Discussion

Space colonies and colonization including Lunar colonies,
Martian colonies, O'Neil space colonies, and space
settlements of nearly every kind will need closed ecological
life support system (CELSS) technology. Unfortunately,
advanced life support systems (ALS) today rely on stored
food, air and water for there is no sustainable agriculture
for use in space. As a consequence all designs for human
operations in space must include hauling 15 pounds of
consumables each and every day for each and every person.
Even terraforming Mars, Venus, the Moon or other planets
(should that ever move from the realm of science fiction to
science news) will need biosphere technology, which is very
similar to CELSS technology. Certainly (near?) future
colonies in space will need to produce their own food, or
their growth will be severely curtailed by their import
requirements. This applies even if space elevators, tethers
or other advanced space transport systems are developed that
drastically reduce the transportation costs.

Although the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) was mandated by the Space Settlement
Act of 1988 to actually move from space exploration toward
space colonization in our solar system, science
experiments in key areas are slow to materialize. NASA's
limited budget only allows them to follow limited paths,
and there isn't sufficient support for space colonization
for congress to increase their budget (sigh). Life in a
space colony or life on the moon or Mars remains limited
to space colonization diagrams and daydreams that provide
excellent ideas, but lack the funding to carry them
foreward. The theory of space colonization and the why of
space colonization lack the money to push these Grand
Plans forward. Space settlement designs from Gerald K.
O'Neil's huge cylinders designed to house 10,000 people to
small research bases all rely on the biosphere for
support--be it earth's natural biosphere or a garden in a
closed ecosystem. Moving from the natural biosphere to
agriculturally closed ecosystems is going to be a
challenge.

It is the goal of ISECCo to help all these future space
colonies, space settlements and even space habitats by
developing a comprehensive science project to develop
closed ecological life support system (CELSS) technology.
In other words we want to help develop the field of space
agriculture, or extra-terrestrial agriculture. Although
space exploration is advancing nicely, extended human
exploration like Martian exploration or Lunar exploration
will need CELSS technology. Especially Martian
colonization will be greatly facilitated with advance life
support science, and most likely a complete CELSS
facility. Science articles are slowly begining to reflect
our need to develop these technolgies, but there is a very
long way left to go.